Ultralight bosonic wave dark matter (DM) is preponderantly contesting the conventional cold DM paradigm in predicting diverse and rich phenomena on small scales. For a DM halo made of ultralight bosons, the wave interference naturally induces slow de Broglie timescale fluctuations of the gravitational potential. In this Letter, we first derive an estimation for the effect of a time-varying gravitational potential on photon propagation. Our numerical simulations suggest that the time-varying potential of a ${10}^{11}{M}_{\odot }$ halo composed of ${10}^{-22}\mathrm{eV}$ bosons would stretch or compress a time series signal by a factor of ${10}^{-10}$. Here, we propose that, due to the precise measurements of their arrival times, lensed repeating fast radio bursts (FRBs) have the potential to effectively validate temporal variations in gravitational potential by monitoring their images over a period of approximately $\mathcal{O}(1)\mathrm{years}$. With rapidly growing FRB observations, this method would serve as a promising method to directly probe the wave nature of galactic DM halos.

We measure the branching fraction and $CP$-violating flavor-dependent rate asymmetry of $B^0\to {\pi }^0{\pi }^0$ decays reconstructed using the Belle II detector in an electron-positron collision sample containing $387\times {10}^6\mathrm{\Upsilon }(4S)$ mesons. Using an optimized event selection, we find $125\pm 20$ signal decays in a fit to background-discriminating and flavor-sensitive distributions. The resulting branching fraction is $(1.25\pm 0.23)\times {10}^{-6}$ and the $CP$-violating asymmetry is $0.03\pm 0.30$.

Increasing attention has been recently devoted to the study of Kantowski-Sachs spacetime as a way to explore the interior of a Schwarzschild black hole. In this work, we construct a Hamiltonian formulation for polar perturbations of this spacetime in the presence of a perturbative massless scalar field. Our analysis is based on a truncated action at quadratic order in perturbations. Both background and perturbative degrees of freedom are treated dynamically, forming a combined system that is endowed with the canonical structure obtained from our truncated action. First-order perturbations of the metric and the matter field are described using perturbative gauge invariants, linear perturbative constraints, and their corresponding canonical variables. For the quantum description, we adopt a hybrid approach where the background is quantized with loop quantum gravity techniques and the perturbations with conventional quantum field methods.

The symmetry data of a $d$-dimensional quantum field theory (QFT) can often be captured in terms of a higher-dimensional symmetry topological field theory. In top-down (i.e., stringy) realizations of this structure, the QFT in question is localized in a higher-dimensional bulk. In many cases of interest, however, the associated ($d+1$)-dimensional bulk is not fully gapped and one must instead consider a filtration of theories to reach a gapped bulk in $D=d+m$ dimensions. Overall, this leads us to a nested structure of relative symmetry theories which descend to coupled edge modes, with the original QFT degrees of freedom localized at a corner of this $D$-dimensional bulk system. We present a bottom-up characterization of this structure and also show how it naturally arises in a number of string-based constructions of QFTs with both finite and continuous symmetries.

In this paper, the emission of gravitational waves in quadratic gravity theory is examined. The wave equations for massless and massive perturbations are derived, followed by the calculation of the energy and angular momentum radiated. In the quadrupole approximation, and taking into account only the transverse-traceless modes, it is shown that the theory avoids the issues generated by the Ostrogradsky instabilities and achieves positive energy and angular momentum emissions. As an example, a rotating ellipsoid with free precession is analyzed, and the effects of the massive perturbations on its rotation are highlighted.

The Johannsen-Psaltis (JP) metric provides a robust framework for testing the “no-hair theorem” of astrophysical black holes due to the regular spacetime configuration around JP black holes. Verification of this theorem through electromagnetic spectra often involves analyzing the photon sphere near black holes, which is intrinsically linked to black hole shadows. Investigating the shadow of JP black holes offers an effective approach for assessing the validity of theorem. Since the Hamilton-Jacobi equation in the JP metric does not permit exact variable separation, an approximate analytical approach is employed to calculate the shadow, while the backward ray-tracing numerical method serves as a rigorous alternative. For JP black holes with closed event horizons, the approximate analytical approach reliably reproduces results obtained through the numerical computation. However, significant discrepancies emerge for black holes with nonclosed event horizons. As the deviation parameter ${\epsilon }_3$ increases, certain regions of the critical curve transition into nonsmooth configurations. Analysis of photon trajectories in these regions reveals chaotic dynamics, which accounts for the failure of the approximate analytical method to accurately describe the shadows of JP black holes with nonclosed event horizons.

In scalar-tensor theories beyond Horndeski, the Vainshtein screening mechanism is only partially effective inside astrophysical bodies. We investigate the potential to detect this partial breaking of Vainshtein screening through the tidal response of fluid bodies. We calculate the gravitomagnetic tidal Love numbers in a specific model of degenerate higher-order scalar-tensor gravity and analyze how deviations from general relativity depend on parameters governing the breaking of Vainshtein screening in the weak-gravity regime. For fixed parameter values, the relative deviations increase with higher multipoles and larger compactness. However, we demonstrate that these parameters alone are insufficient to fully characterize the tidal response of relativistic bodies in scalar-tensor theories beyond Horndeski.

The purpose of the present work is twofold: (1) we propose a new mechanism for the origin of bulk viscosity in cosmological context, and then, (2) we address the thermodynamic implications of viscous cosmology based on the thermodynamics of the apparent horizon. In particular, we show that the velocity gradient of the comoving expansion of the Universe (along the distance measured from a comoving observer) in turn leads to a viscouslike pressure of the fluid inside the apparent horizon. This points to the importance of the bulk viscosity of fluid during the cosmological evolution of the Universe, as the comoving expansion itself generates the viscosity. Therefore, the thermodynamic interpretation of viscous cosmology becomes important in its own right. In this regard, it turns out that the cosmological evolution of the Universe with a bulk viscosity naturally satisfies the first and the second laws of thermodynamics of the apparent horizon, without imposing any exotic condition and for a general form of the coefficient of viscosity. This in turn affirms the thermodynamic correspondence of viscous cosmology.

The cosmic gravitational focusing (CGF) of relic neutrinos can provide an independent measurement of the absolute neutrino masses $m_i$ with fourth-power dependence ($m_i^4$). We demonstrate in this paper for the first time how this can help identify the neutrino mass ordering, using the fact that total mass falling below the inverted ordering threshold allows the discrimination of inverted ordering. Upon incorporating the projected CGF sensitivity at DESI, the preference for the normal ordering with a prior $\sum m_i>0.059\mathrm{eV}$ would increase from the original 89.9% of the existing matter clustering method with the DESI analysis to 98.2% while the inverted ordering is further disfavored from 10.1% to 1.8%. We also show how this can affect the prospects of the neutrinoless double beta and single beta decay measurements.

The gravitational wave (GW) event GW190521, likely originating from a binary black hole (BBH) merger within an active galactic nucleus (AGN) disk, is associated with the optical flare ZTF19abanrhr. The remnant black holes (BHs) from BBH mergers can launch the jet and outflow and then interact with the disk medium, which can be responsible for the associated electromagnetic radiations. In this work, we examine the shock breakout and subsequent cooling emissions from four potential components: the outflow, jet head, jet cocoon, and disk cocoon, all driven by the remnant BH within the AGN disk. Using dynamic models and observational constraints, for GW190521, we identify the parameter space for each component and conclude that either the outflow or the disk cocoon may produce the observed electromagnetic signals, whereas the outflow model requires an extremely high outflow velocity and the disk cocoon model requires a high jet power. We present best-fit light curves and spectral energy distributions for both components, showing peak emissions in the UV band for the outflow and spanning optical to UV for the disk cocoon.

We propose novel numerical schemes based on the Boris method in curved spacetime, incorporating both hadronic and radiative interactions for the first time. Once the proton has lost significant energy due to radiative and hadronic losses, and its gyroradius has decreased below typical scales on which the electromagnetic field varies, we apply a guiding center approximation (GCA). We fundamentally simulate collision processes either with a Monte-Carlo method or, where applicable, as a continuous energy loss, contingent on the local optical depth. To test our algorithm for the first time combining the effects of electromagnetic, gravitational, and radiation fields including hadronic interactions, we simulate highly relativistic protons traveling through various electromagnetic fields and proton backgrounds. We provide unit tests in various spatially dependent electromagnetic and gravitational fields and background photon and proton distributions, comparing the trajectory against analytic results. We propose that our method can be used to analyze hadronic interactions in black hole accretion disks, jets, and coronae to study the neutrino abundance from active galactic nuclei.

We analyze the confident binary black hole (BBH) detections from the third Gravitational-Wave Transient Catalog with an alternative mass population model in order to capture features in the mass distribution beyond the $\mathrm{POWERLAW}+\mathrm{PEAK}$ model. We find that the peak of a second power law characterizes the $\sim 30–35M_{\odot }$ bump, such that the data marginally prefers a mixture of two power laws for the mass distribution of binary components over a $\mathrm{POWERLAW}+\mathrm{PEAK}$ model with a Bayes factor ${\log }_{10}\mathcal{B}$ of 0.24. This result may imply that the $\sim 30–35M_{\odot }$ feature represents the onset of a second population of BBH mergers (e.g., from a dynamical formation channel) rather than a specific mass feature over a broader distribution. When an additional Gaussian bump is allowed within our power law mixture model, we find a new feature in the BH mass spectrum at $\sim 65–70M_{\odot }$ (${\log }_{10}\mathcal{B}=0.29$ compared to $\mathrm{POWERLAW}+\mathrm{PEAK}$). This new feature may be consistent with hierarchical mergers and constitute $\sim 3\%$ of the BBH population. This model also recovers a maximum mass of ${58}_{-14}^{+32}{M}_{\odot }$ for the second power law, consistent with the onset of a pair-instability supernova mass gap.

In this paper, we review the fundamental aspects of $\mathcal{N}=1$ supergravity and employ the chiral formalism to describe spin-$\frac{3}{2}$ fermions. Armed with this, we analyze the discrete symmetries of the graviton in the context of linearized gravity (LG) and Rarita-Schwinger (RS) fields, which include the description of the gravitino. Additionally, we highlight the advantages of the chiral formalism in classifying Lorentz and $CPT$-violating terms in RS theories, extending these models by including Lorentz-violating operators, as has been done in LG.

It is shown that the Belle and LHCb data on the interference of the amplitudes of the $S$ and $D$ partial waves in the decays $D_{s1}(2536{)}^{+}\to D^{*+}{K}_S^0$ and $D_{s1}(2536{)}^{-}\to {\overline{D}}^{*0}{K}^{-}$ allow us to obtain an estimate of the $S$-wave $D^{*}K$ scattering length in the channel with isospin $I=0$: $|a_{D^{*}K}^{(0)}|=(0.94\pm 0.06)\mathrm{fm}$. The possibility of explaining the found value by the contribution of the $D_{s1}(2460)$ resonance is discussed. The decay of $B_{s1}(5830)\to B^{*}\overline{K}$ is also briefly discussed.

Renormalization group evolution equations describing the scale dependence of quantities in quantum chromodynamics play a central role in the interpretation of experimental data. Arguably the most important evolution equations for collider physics applications are the Dokshitzer-Gribov-Lipatov-Altarelli-Parisi (DGLAP) equations, which describe the evolution of a quark or gluon fragmenting into hadrons, with only a single hadron identified at a time. In recent years, the study of the correlations of energy flow within jets has come to play a central role at collider experiments, necessitating an understanding of correlations, going beyond the standard DGLAP paradigm. In this paper we derive a general renormalization group equation describing the collinear dynamics that account for correlations in the fragmentation. We compute the kernel of this evolution equation at next-to-leading order, where it involves the $1\to 3$ splitting functions, and develop techniques to solve it numerically. We show that our equation encompasses all previously known collinear evolution equations, namely DGLAP and the evolution of multihadron fragmentation functions. As an application of our results, we consider the phenomenologically relevant example of energy flow on charged particles, computing the energy fraction in charged particles in $e^{+}{e}^{-}\to$ hadrons at next-to-next-to-leading order. Our results are an important step toward improving the understanding of the collinear dynamics of jets, with broad applications in jet substructure, ranging from the study of multihadron correlations, to the description of inclusive (sub)jet production, and the advancement of modern parton showers.

We investigate the resonant baryonic $B$ decay $B^{-}\to {\mathcal{P}}_{cs}^0\overline{p},{\mathcal{P}}_{cs}^0\to J/\psi \mathrm{\Lambda }$, where ${\mathcal{P}}_{cs}^0\equiv {\mathcal{P}}_{cs}(4338{)}^0$ is identified as a hidden charm pentaquark candidate with strangeness. By interpreting ${\mathcal{P}}_{cs}^0$ as the ${\mathrm{\Xi }}_c\overline{D}$ molecule that strongly decays into $J/\psi \mathrm{\Lambda }$ and ${\eta }_c\mathrm{\Lambda }$, we discover a dominant triangle rescattering effect for $B^{-}\to {\mathcal{P}}_{cs}^0\overline{p}$, initiated by $B^{-}\to J/\psi K^{-}$. Through the exchange of a $\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}$ antibaryon, $J/\psi$ and $K^{-}$ undergo rescattering, transforming into ${\mathcal{P}}_{cs}^0$ and $\overline{p}$, respectively. Based on this rescattering mechanism, we calculate $\mathcal{B}(B^{-}\to {\mathcal{P}}_{cs}^0\overline{p},{\mathcal{P}}_{cs}^0\to J/\psi \mathrm{\Lambda })=({1.4}_{-1.1}^{+2.1})\times {10}^{-6}$, which is consistent with the measured data.

We extend our prior results on the worldline computation of the axial vector-vector-vector (AVV) triangle anomaly in polarized deeply inelastic scattering (DIS) to the finite mass case by computing in addition the pseudoscalar-vector-vector (PVV) triangle graph. For the well-studied QED case, we show explicitly how the off-forward AVV pole exactly cancels an identical PVV pole. We then demonstrate the dramatic difference in QCD due to the chiral condensate, which qualitatively modifies anomalous Ward identities. As in the massless case, the anomaly pole in QCD is canceled by the dynamics of a primordial isosinglet pseudoscalar $\overline{\eta }$-meson, whose Wess-Zumino-Witten coupling to the topological charge density shifts the pole to the physical ${\eta }^{\prime }$ mass, with the finite quark mass contribution differing by $O(10\%)$ from the Witten-Veneziano formula. We obtain a compact analytic expression for the finite mass corrections to Shore and Veneziano’s result that the proton’s net quark helicity $\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Sigma }\propto \sqrt{{\chi }_{\mathrm{QCD}}^{\prime }{|}_{m=0}(0)}$, the forward slope of the topological susceptibility in the chiral limit, and show they are of the order of a few percentages. Our prior prediction that the polarized DIS structure function $g_1$ is quenched by sphaleronlike topological transitions at small $x$ is unaffected by quark mass effects. Our results illustrate how worldline computations of anomalous processes, in synergy with lattice computations and nonet chiral perturbation theory, can uncover novel nonperturbative features of QCD at the Electron-Ion Collider.

The potential hadron-to-quark phase transition in neutron stars has not been fully understood as the property of cold, dense, and strongly interacting matter cannot be theoretically described by the first-principle perturbative calculations, nor have they been systematically measured through terrestrial low-to-intermediate energy heavy-ion experiments. Given the Tolman-Oppenheimer-Volkoff (TOV) equations, the equation of state (EoS) of the neutron star (NS) matter can be constrained by the observations of NS mass, radius, and tidal deformability. However, large observational uncertainties and the limited number of observations currently make it challenging to strictly reconstruct the EoS, especially to identify interesting features such as a strong first-order phase transition. In this work, we study the dependency of reconstruction quality of the phase transition on the number of NS observations of mass and radius as well as their uncertainty, based on a fiducial EoS. We conquer this challenging problem by constructing a neural network, which allows one to parametrize the EoS with minimum model-dependency, and by devising an algorithm of parameter optimization based on the analytical linear response analysis of the TOV equations. This work may pave the way for the understanding of the phase transition features in NSs using future x-ray and gravitational wave measurements.